By Chung Ah-young
Japan plans to return “Uigwe” or the royal protocols of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) to Korea as Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said in his apology statement to mark the 100th anniversary of Japan’s forced annexation of Korea on Tuesday.
Regarding the decision, Kim Ui-jung, head of the Joseon Dynasty Uigwe Recovery Committee, said that “it is the result of the civic groups’ efforts to retrieve the lost treasures” in a statement.
“The return of the Uigwe means more than the apology from the Japanese Premier. The recovery of the treasure will help the two countries make a landmark development in relations based on understanding and friendship,” Ven. Hyemun, general director of the committee, said.
The Uigwe is a unique collection of records of rites and rituals, which prescribe through prose and illustration the major ceremonies and rites of the royal family through its 500-year history.
The documents now kept in Japan consisting of 81 books were originally stored at an archive at Mt. Odae and taken to Tokyo by the Japan’s governor-general office in Korea in 1922. They are currently held at the Japanese Imperial Household Agency. Japan is believed to have 167 books, including 81 originals and a protocol about the funeral of Empress Myeongseong, who was assassinated by the Japanese at Gyeongbok Palace.
The issue of the royal protocols held by Japan was not discussed when Seoul signed a basic treaty with Tokyo in 1965 because the books were not known to be stored at the Japanese Imperial Household Agency.
Their existence was first known in 2001 when Chun Hye-bong, a private research agency, investigated and discovered that the documents were in Japan.
Since then, historians, Buddhists and civic groups have been joining in their efforts to retrieve the historical treasures back to Korea. In 2006, Buddhists launched the Joseon Dynasty Uigwe Recovery Committee.
The books were produced in the early Joseon era but many were burned during the Japanese invasion in the 16th century. Among the extant royal protocols, the Uigwe from King Seonjo in 1601 is the oldest, which describes the procedures of the funeral for Queen Uiin. Most of the royal texts remaining today are from the 19th century.
Documenting not only the records of all the procedures, formalities and requirements needed to conduct important ceremonies such as weddings, funerals, banquets and receiving foreign missions, the protocols also include details on the construction of royal buildings and tombs as well as other various cultural activities of the royal family.
The documents also include the illustrations and paintings depicting the tools and buildings in various colors that were hard to be portrayed in letters.
Besides the Uigwe in Japan, 297 Uigwe of 186 kinds were taken from Oegyujanggak (the Ganghwa-do branch of the Royal library Gyujanggak of Joseon) during the invasion of Ganghwa Island by the French troops in 1866.
Extra copies of the Uigwe books were printed and stored in several places across the country to protect the documents in case of foreign attacks. There are currently more than 3,000 Uigwe books in Kyujanggak (Gyujanggak), or the Institute for Korean Studies, at Seoul National University and Jangseogak, the Academy of Korean Studies.
The Uigwe were registered as the UNESCO Memory of the World in 2007 for their rarity and historical significance.
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